To God be the Glory

My blog post today comes out of the thought of giving all due glory to God. We do this in many ways, the biggest of which is worship. Jeremiah Burroughs made an excellent point about giving glory to God as he spoke about drawing near to God and how “though the lives of men are dear and precious to God, yet they are not so precious as His glory” (34). In this section of the sermon, he says,

“We think much to have the lives of men taken away, but if we knew what the glory of God meant and what infinite reason there is that God should glorified, we would not think it so much that the lives of so many men should go for the glory of god. It is mercy that our lives have not gone many times for God’s glory. How often might God have glorified Himself in taking away our lives? We have cause to bless Him that our lives have been preserved as long as they have...” (35)

But I love how he later goes on to finish this thought at the end of his sermon and says,

“There is no such way to take off the terror of the thoughts of death as by keeping a familiarity with God. Death, then, is joy to those that converse with Him...“I shall but change my place, I shall not change my company.””  (59)

This whole concept is incredible. Not only do we live to glorify God, but we die to glorify God. And when we live our lives with the goal of glorifying God, then when we die (to glorify God), we continue our ministry of glorifying God forever - practically with no interruption whatsoever! Because we have lived our lives constantly in God’s presence and worshipping and glorifying and talking with God, it is not a huge change to go from doing all of that here on earth to doing so on heaven. Again, “I shall but change my place, I shall not change my company.” This confidence is wonderful and truly life-changing.

But in my own life, can I honestly say that I am totally willing to consciously be willing to give up my life at a moment’s notice for the glory of God? And even more than my willingness is concerned, am I walking so close to God as to say with confidence that I KNOW God and that my company and companionship will be the same here or in heaven?